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Jobias placed his little feet carefully, one in front of the other, toe before heel, left paw, right paw, feeling his way painfully slowly by running his hands along the wall... to trip in a place like this was basically asking to have your body eaten from the toes up. And the creatures in here wouldn't even mind that he had a serious case of shrew toe mold on his left rear paw... of course, Jobias never saw anyone down here at all, so as long as he didn't mind the small yellow spots on his paw, nobody else complained either.

It was all the same to him, really. It was pitch dark in the tunnel,

A deep shadow crossed through his peripheral vision and the little shrew spun around towards it, grabbing at his little novelty flashlight that was strapped to his back.* After a short bit of panicked fumbling, Jobias slammed his little shrew paw into the button with an 'oink' and the painfully bright LED light pierced the blackness around him. "Essa light! Take that, take that! No dark will get me, that's how Jobey lives it is, that's how Jobey doesn't let the monsters get him. Poor Jobey... poor little guy... TAKE THAT! NO DARK! DARK WILL DIE!" Once his eyes got used to the light, he stopped cowering against his tunnel wall and approached the opposite side of the tunnel. There was a particular spot that he was staring at, which to the untrained eye looked like every other spot on the wall, and he blasted his light at the spot with a malicious look and a tell tale 'oink'.

"No dark, I won't do dark... no dark." He grumbled at the spot a second before deciding that he was safe again, then with a nod he let go of the button on his little pink light and the tunnel plunged into darkness again. It took him a moment to strap the light back onto his back where it was kept and for his eyes to readjust to the darkness. He could be heard grumbling a while in the distance... Jobias talked to himself a lot.

It was a mere 1 hour and 23 minutes later (or 4980 seconds**) that Jobias came into a bigger room that was dimly lit by three torches stuck in the walls. He sighed to himself as he saw the crumpled figure in the middle of the room. "Jobey hates this... he does, he does..." The little shrew looked around the room cautiously, one paw protectively on his light, and he backed out of the room through the door opposite the one he came in through. "Jobey hates this the worst..."

*It was of the variety that you might find in your lumpy stocking on Christmas morning... usually shaped like a farm animal of some sort with an obnoxious little blue light. This particular one made an ominous 'oink' noise when the button was pushed, and light poured from the poor creature's nose.
**Which coincidentally is exactly how long Canker Blossom likes to cook her favorite meal...

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You awake in a darkened room in a series of tunnels. You're lying on the dirt floor, wearing one shoe. It's not your shoe, you've never seen it before, and you certainly wouldn't wear it given the choice... it's bright red with little blue and yellow swirlys all over it. The top cuff has cream pom poms on it, and there's a little fringe around the rim. Really the whole boot is absurd. As if that weren't bad enough, the laces are too tight, and it smells slightly of cheese... but as you try to take it off it seems to resist your every effort, even getting a little tighter and developing a slight aroma of garlic to go with the cheese... You can't remember how you got here, or even where this might be. There are two tunnels leading out... one to the right that seems larger and a little better lit (even though you really can't see all that much), and one to the left that's smaller and pitch dark, but you can hear a voice traveling through it...

Do you....
~~~~ Grab a torch and go through the tunnel to the right? You can feel a cool breeze and you're sure that this must be the way out through no reason other than the fact that you have a gut and it has feelings.
~~~~ Grab a torch and go through the left tunnel to find the voice... any company is better company than this.. besides, maybe this is his shoe and he'll help you get the ugly thing off.

Rules::

Same rules as always.
~ Play as many characters as you like, but play them alone, one at a time.
~ I will update once a day, late at night (eastern) and you will be expected to respond once a day, blah blah blah. You're not stupid, I don't need to explain this.
~ You can start late and join late, but you will not be eligible for any prizes until you're caught up... can't have you knowing the future now, can we? No... we'll leave the space time continuum alone kthxbai.
~ Has fun.

Grab a torch and go through the left tunnel to find the voice... any company is better company than this.. besides, maybe this is his shoe and he'll help you get the ugly thing off.

Tuck yawned as he awoke. "Uh..." He blinked, wondering just how he'd gotten here... wherever here was. Scratching his head in confusion, the squirrel slowly stood up. And then promptly sat back down to stare at his foot. What. was. THAT? "Ewww..." It stank and looked horrible and totally clashed with his outfit!

Frowning, the young squirrel tried and tried to remove the offensive item. "Get. OFF!" He grunted before panting and giving up. The room he was in smelled strongly of garlic now from his repeated attempts to remove the ugly thing. Scowling, he got up and limped a few steps to the door. Great... which way?

"Ah!" He heard something to the left and took off that way. "Hey! Hey, you... Can you help me?"

Grab a torch and go through the tunnel to the right?

You and your light start the ominous trek through the dark tunnel. It takes you a second to realize that there's a method to walking on uneven ground in the dark, and it's more than one stumble before you get a good method going. By feeling your way down the tunnel with your hands you start to feel a little safer in the almost dark... but your shoe seems to be becoming restless... your adorned paw starts to try and make you skip... it's almost dragging you along before you know it...

Do you...
~~ Fight it! A well built leather strap-boot might make good decisions, but you're not trusting your life to this horrid excuse for modern footwear fashion.
~~ Go with it... it doesn't seem to be causing any trouble, and it might know the way out

Grab a torch and go through the left tunnel to find the voice

It doesn't take you long to find the voice, though he seemed to have heard you advance on him. The next thing you hear is 'oink!' and your eyes are assaulted by a vivid LED light. You can't see anything other than the backs of your own eyelids... but you can hear.... "Don't come ta closer... don't do it. They does it cause they don't know any better, they does it cause theys just monsteres with little monsteres brains... you got the boot, now you don't come closer..." The voice seems to be coming from right across from you, withing leaping distance...

Do you...
~~ Stand there and try to explain yourself? Maybe keeping a cool and calm head will help you to keep your cool and calm head where it belongs.
~~ JUMP ON HIM! He's obviously crazy, and you know what happens when you try to reason with crazy creatures... lets just hope he's not a badger or a fox... cause that would suck.

Fight it! A well built leather strap-boot might make good decisions, but you're not trusting your life to this horrid excuse for modern footwear fashion.

Just one foot in front of the pegged other... Fran kept one paw on the wall as she continued down the tunnel. The rabbit was not thrilled when her beshoed foot started to move on its own. "Hey!" She leaned against the wall to try and keep from falling, but it didn't help. Poor rabbit. You try standing when your only good foot decides to dance.

"Stop you evil thing!" If only she had a good sword! Of course, it'd be hard to stab the shoe and not stab her foot... but... well, it was a moot point anyways, wasn't it? Scowling, she sat up and grabbed the shoe with both front paws. "Get. OFF!!"

Stand there and try to explain yourself? Maybe keeping a cool and calm head will help you to keep your cool and calm head where it belongs.

Winnie spread her wings to try and block out the light. "Hey! That hurts. Please stop. I just want some help. This shoe... I can't get it off. Can you get it off for me, please?"The poor small owl... she only wanted the ill-fitting shoe removed!

Toki rolled over to nestle further into her comfortable bed and, yawning mightily, inhaled a mouthful of moist dirt. It was several seconds before her sleep-addled brain recognized that there was something wrong with this and recommended that she spit out the soggy soil. Her bed, her mind insisted, had been constructed of soft moss, not damp earth, and Toki had most certainly been in her bed when she had fallen asleep. ...Hadn't she? Reluctantly, Toki heeded her nagging brain and sat up, carelessly spitting out the mouthful of mud before rubbing her sleep-blearied eyes. She looked up, tried rubbing her eyes once more, and finally concluded that she was seeing just fine, but that it was very dark in this wherever-she-was.

She was not particularly worried. Toki was, in point of fact, an exceptionally brave adventurer, and she did still possess her squid stick should danger threaten. Besides, she could see no real point to being worried. She couldn't remember how she had come to be in this tunnel, which meant that it was unlikely that some horrible threatening beasty had smacked her over the head and brought her here, so why worry? Most likely, she had worn herself out chasing gragsporks and settled into the tunnel to rest up for a while. Yes, that sounded like a perfectly plausible explanation.

As she considered the devious tendencies of gragsporks, Toki retrieved her squid stick and climbed to her feet. The young mouse took a moment to adjust her magnificent hair, vain thing that she was; the poor white wig had seen much better days, and, already windblown and ragged from Toki's adventures, was now lopsided and muddied fom her impromptu nap. The mousemaid cared just enough to dust away some of the mud, then grew bored with the wig and started off down one of the tunnels. She had taken only a step when she realized that something was horribly wrong. Something was eating her foot.

Whatever incredible monster story Toki had concocted was lost the minute her eyes settled on the little red shoe. No monster story could have been as terrifying as the fate that had actually befallen her. There, nestled happily upon her right footpaw, was a bright red, blue and yellow, pompomed, fringed, cheesy shoe. It was, without a doubt, the most magnificent piece of foot protection that Toki had ever seen. And there was only one.

"(Vader)NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Toki fell to her knees and howled in anguish, though her high little voice didn't carry very far with the muffling effects of the surrounding dirt. Briefly, she considered throwing a temper tantrum until whatever beasty had gifted her with the magnificent shoe returned with the second of the pair, but she soon decided that her cry of despair had been sufficiently dramatic. Instead, she came to a decision and hopped to her feet, chipper as ever. She would find the shoe herself! With her goal in mind, Toki again hefted her squid stick and, with her free paw, helped herself to one of the torches nestled in a wall sconce. She started off to the right, but had hardly taken a few steps before a voice carried from the other tunnel, the opposite direction. Immediately she whirled around and hurried down the left tunnel. These tunnels couldn't be all that inhabited! It must be the beasty who had given her the shoe!

Spots and stars exploded in Toki's vision as the fiendish cry of OINK rang through the air. Something not-oink was fussing at her, something about monsters and brains and boots, which was really not a safe topic to discuss wth Toki. She had never heard such an 'Oink' before, and the mad rambling of the oink's weilder, coupled with this monster talk, certainly meant he was a monster himself! And he wanted her brain! And her magnificent boot! Toki did not hesitate, but charged the crazed Oink with a bloodcurdling (or perhaps ear-piercing) battle cry, leaping at the shadowy creature with the intent of thwacking him over the head with her squid stick.

In the split second while she hung in the air, Toki applauded herself for her bravery in the face of OINK-zombies, and mentally awarded herself the Medal of Awesomeness.

Try and fight the boot, you're not taking orders from anything with pompoms... not since high school anyway...

You stumble and fidget trying to overcome the force (parasite or other) which has taken over your foot temporarily (at least you hope it's only temporary), and before long the effort starts to become too much. You kick (wait, was that you or the boot?) and you realize that with all the struggling it's hard to tell which movements you had intended to do... With one last final kick, your foot heaves up in the air, sending you (literally) heel over head (a** over teakettle) and you land on your back... 10 feet down a hole. The fall is quick, and you land softly on a pile of moss (please, tree, let it be moss)... and now that the boot has stopped pulling you are able to raise yourself to your feet. The walls around you are covered in scrape marks, presumable where other creatures have tried to climb out, and there's a word etched into the dirt wall in front of you.... "Hope"

Do you...
~~ Call out for help? It's always good to let other people know where you are when you're trapped and ready for a good cooking.
~~ Try to climb out yourself. If there's scrape marks and no skeletons, it stands to reason that the others all got out right? Right... maybe.


Let the boot go it's merry way, it's obviously got some kind of intelligent parasite controlling it.

The shoe controls your every step, marching you further down the dark passage you chose only moments ago... not that you seem to have a choice now. Since you're not struggling, the travel is swift and quick, and without having to control your own foot or move your own muscles much, it's not even that tiring. Soon enough, though, you come across a pit, and the shoe looks as if it's going to drag you into the hole. You only have a moment to panic a little before the shoe directs your foot muscles into a valiant leap, catapulting you across the crevice to the rocky shores of the other side (really it was more like leaping silly putty than a gazelle, but hey, no one was watching)... "HEY! HELP ME!" cries a voice from the pit... (okay so someone was watching... but they're in a pit, who are they going to tell?" )

Do you...
~~ Try and help them? Creatures in pits are like genies and magic gnomes and such... you rescue them, they grant wishes, your life falls apart and you find an Arabian princess to call your very own.
~~ Walk on, Creatures who don't have enough common sense not to live in pits in caves deserve to stay in pits in caves.

Always try to talk to crazy people before jumping on them... you learned that in high school too...

You try to talk to the creature, but no matter what you say, he doesn’t seem to be listening to you at all. In fact, the more you talk at him, the more he mutters, until finally he’s almost shouting … “MONSTERES DON’T GET HERE!” His light swishes back and forth in front of your eyes, and you begin to catch the fact that he’s a teenage shrew… you can’t really see him, but he looks messy, disheveled… unfortunately, while you’re trying to get a better look at him, something smelling horrid and smoking hits you in the face… the little rat has pegged you with a smoke bomb. After you’re done coughing up your little lungs and hacking up smoke shapes (that one kind of looked like a small snail, well done) you realize that you can hear him running off down the tunnel… “THE BOOT IS THE EVIL! KEEP AWAY FROM JOBEY!”

Do you…
~~ Follow him… he’s your only hope and the little smoking shrew seems to know about the boot… which, as fairy tales have taught us, seems very important to know about at this point in the story.
~~ Give up and backtrack… Smoking shrews should be avoided… really anything smoking should be avoided… especially shrews, mongooses, and small waterfowl named Harvey.


EULALIA! DEATH TO CRAZY SHREWS!!

You leap a fine leap and you land square on the small shrew’s shoulders. Now that you’re sitting on his chest, you can clearly see that he’s just a teen, small and weedy, disheveled and dirty. He obviously hasn’t eaten in a while, and he’s not all that right in the head. There’s not really anywhere he could go with your knees on his little chest, but he still manages to cower and whimper… crying softly… “Jobey never did nothing wrong, never took the boot, never got the boot, oh poor jobey, poor little jobey… poor little shrew, his mum warned him, she did, she warned him good… poor little jobey.” He can’t seem to look at you at all…

Do you…
~~ Get up. It was fun until he started to cry, now it’s just pathetic and the awesome has pretty much worn off.
~~ Stay there. Maybe pressing him in this state will get you all the answers you need about the boot and this tunnel. The dirty little ankle biter has to know something.